Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS

When Calls the Heart has been renewed for season 14 by the Hallmark Channel. (Entertainment Now)

Hulu has given a second season renewal to the Glen Powell-led football comedy Chad Powers. (Variety)

CBS has given both new dramas Sheriff Country and Boston Blue season two renewals. (Variety)

Paramount+ has given a third season renewal to Landman. (Deadline)

TV SERIES PICK-UP

MGM+ has picked up the TV series Legacy of Spies based on the John le Carre novel with Matthew Macfadyen playing the legendary spymaster George Smiley. The cast of the new series will also include Sons of Anarchy start Charlie Hunnam as British intelligence officer Alec Leamas and Daniel Bruhl (Captain America: Civil War) as East German spy Jens Fielder. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Richard Armitage (The Hobbit movie franchise) and Annabel Scholey (Rivals) will star in the police procedural Winter over on PBS that is about one of the most gifted pathologists of his generation. Based on the long-running French crime series Balthazar, the series follows the titular Ethan Winter, who possesses an analytical mind capable of deductive reasoning, which perfectly complements DI Lauren Bell (Scholey), a no-nonsense detective who is as driven as Winter when working on a case. Together they use Winter’s genius and insight into the victims alongside Bell and her murder squad detectives. Yet Winter is harboring a secret. The unsolved murder of someone close to him still haunts his every move. (Deadline)

Game of Thrones alum Kit Harington will star opposite Shailene Woodley and Lindsay Lohan in the limited series Count My Lies over on Hulu. The tagline for the new series: “When compulsive liar Sloane Caraway (Woodley) fibs her way into a nanny position for the gorgeous and charismatic Violet (Lohan) and Jay Lockhart (Harington), it seems she’s finally landed her dream job. But little does Sloane know, she’s just entered a household brimming with secrets that are about to explode, with potentially catastrophic consequences for all. (Deadline)

Recent Emmy winner Shawn Hatosy (from The Pitt) will star opposite Olivia Colman and Brie Larson in the FX limited series Cry Wolf that will be a psychological family thriller, following a social worker, Kath (Colman), and a mother, April (Larson), thrust into crisis when the mother’s teenage daughter, Mia, alleges abuse, pushing both women to their limits as they navigate an impossible situation. Hatosy will play April’s husband and Mia’s stepfather who is at the center of the girl’s abuse allegations. (Deadline)

Season two of the Paramount+ crime drama MobLand has added to its cast with Johnny Flynn (Beast) and Ophelia Lovibond (Minx) joining as series regulars. Also returning for Season two are Janet McTeer, Toby Jones and Alex Fine, who will reprise their original Season 1 roles. (Deadline)

The Fed Five, as featured in the 11th episode of season two of NCIS: Origins, has found its other members, including Adam Kulbersh (Modern Family and SVU) as NIS Special Agent Felix Betts and Mark Deklin (Blue Bloods) as NIS Special Agent Dan McLane. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before star Lana Condor will be joined by Jack Whitehall (Jungle Cruise and Malice), Robbie Amell (Upload), Lizzie Broadway (Gen V), Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost) and Randall Park (Fresh Off the Boat) in the upcoming indie rom-com Whodunnit, which follows Tess Klein (Condor), whose life was supposed to follow the plan: love by 25, marriage by 30, baby by 34. But after a spectacularly failed marriage proposal and one wild rebound weekend where her best friend Kelsey tells her “the only way to get over someone is to get under someone else,” Tess finds herself pregnant and clueless about who the father is. As she sets out to solve the mystery, she discovers that sometimes, the right family finds you. (Deadline)

Cailee Spaeny (Civil War and Priscilla) and Drew Starkey (Queer) will star in Deep Cuts, the adaptation of the Holly Brickley novel that is a love story about two music-obsessed twentysomethings navigating the messy realities of ambition, belonging and adulthood over the course of an era-defining decade. They will be taking over for Saoirse Ronan and Austin Butler, who both left the production due to scheduling conflicts. (Deadline)

MADE-FOR-TV-MOVIE NEWS

Hallmark Channel will be teaming with Walt Disney World for a new original holiday movie called Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True that will star Lacey Chabert and The Last Ship alum Travis Van Wickle. The official logline for the movie is: “Lindsey (Chabert) and her extended family head to Walt Disney World to spend a magical Christmas together. But the dream of a jolly holiday gets quickly dashed when Lindsey discovers her room is next door to Philip (Van Winkle), a disastrous first date she recently had, who’s also there on a family trip. As Lindsey and Philip’s paths cross throughout their stay, the frost starts to thaw as they learn they’re not so different from each other after all. Thanks to some Walt Disney World magic, the holiday wish Lindsey made in Cinderella Fountain just might turn their rivalry into romance.” (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!